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Hey guys👋
These days overthinking is a serious pain when you don’t know the cure. You unconsciously get wrapped around a thought, a literal thought, that curls your mind and takes away weeks or even months of your time to live consciously.
Why is overthinking so inevitable in our lives? And what is overthinking actually in the first place?
Google says, that when you repetitively dwell on the same thought or situation over and over to the point that it disrupts your life, then it is overthinking.
But I would describe it being an uncontrolled and unhealthy process of thinking about things that are predominantly outside of one's control which can only make one's mind worse.
There are two types of overthinking. One is past event overthinking and the other one is future event overthinking.
⏮️Past Event Overthinking
It connects nicely with one of my other post which talks about stoicism and the dichotomy of control.
The past is inherently outside of our control, and worrying about it can make no difference. Past event overthinking is basically due to the fear of losing something in the future.
When someone says something to you with an unusual expression, you wrap your whole head around that single expression and you just make up a whole web of your own thoughts which you would tangle around later unmindfully, while the other person is chillin’ on Netflix!
He might have never thought in the ways that you did and you just end up hanging your mind for absolutely no reason.
You make up reasons to justify that your overthinking is worth its time, subconsciously, denying every thought that would tell you otherwise.
The reason for his unusual expression might just be because he was behind a yawn or a sneeze or something that has nothing to do with the mind-wide-web you’d built inside your head.
“Thinking about things outside of our control is the root of overthinking”
-Jasir Ibrahim →me
⏭️Future Event Overthinking
Everyone cares about the future and everyone wants a good, well-settled future. Fine. But overthinking the same thing can completely flip the coin and make the whole day a sad-er-day.
Future overthinking is fundamentally caused by fear and anxiety that comes as a response to an external threat that might affect one’s survival in this social world. This fear is mainly about what other people will think about you when you are up to doing that thing in front of a group of people.
Nobody is thinking about you, you are just thinking of the same unhealthy thought that is good for none. Everyone has got their own problems to worry about and nobody is scheduling their time to think about you.
If you want more reasons to believe this is true, this post is for you:
One thing that I want to remind you is about the insight from the book called ‘The Power of Your Subconscious Mind’. Which I also wrote about here😶🌫:
️In that book, the author, Dr. Joseph Murphy, says that what you put in your mind is what you get out as a result in the form of your external environment. If you put negative thoughts in your mind you will experience negative things happening around you and if you put good vibe things in your mind then suddenly the whole world is with you and becomes a much more enjoyable place to be in.
If this doesn’t relate to your mind, then here is a line that I heard on YouTube, which is from the book ‘The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse’ by Charlie Mackesy, which goes like this: The boy says to the horse, “I can’t see a way through” and the horse asks, “Can you see your next step?” When the boy nodded yes, the horse said, “Just take that”.
This insight can be a game-changer for many people who just cannot start doing what they want to do or who are stuck at a point that feels like an end and cannot find out where they are going.
“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift, that’s why it’s called the present”
-Eleanor Roosevelt
I hope this newsletter has helped you to get out of your overthinking habit and helped you to focus on the things that really matter. Hope you had a good time reading my newsletter and hope it made a positive difference in your life.
If you loved this post and gained some value, I’d be really happy if you hit that❤️
Feel free to comment on your thoughts and insights reading this post! I’d love your unique perspectives!
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Thanks, Guys👋
-Jasir Ibrahim
-The Mindset, The Ultimate Mental Growth Model.